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A link between video games and unemployment

economist.com

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Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#161

Post by caffinatedmonk »

jboggan wrote: post #71
sametmax wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the exact opposite actually. Nit saying it's a bad thing though. But it's important to understand that screens are taking your attention away. You are not in the moment at all.

I agree with that, you are completely taken out of your actual context, or at least I am. I used to game really heavily during a pretty terrible period (divorce + grad school) in an attempt to cope. Of course it actually just made things worse overall while distracting my brain to make it seem temporarily better, it diverted a lot of the energy I might have used towards engaging and fixing the problems. When I game s…

Sounds like how I feel when writing code.

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#162

Post by galdosdi »

dozzie wrote: post #136
ddebernardy wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they really? I've never spent more than a few days on a book, but I've certainly spent well over 300 hours on some video games. I love reading, but to me books seem quite expensive as an entertainment medium in comparison with computer games.

...until you realize that we still have this old-fashioned institutions called libraries .

Indeed! That said, library quality, much like school quality, can vary enormously by geography. Also like school quality, it's not entirely random, there's a pattern where wealthier communities often (though not always) tend to have better libraries.

(I'm defining better as wider and deeper selection of books and ignoring anything else, like other library services, library hours, whatever.)

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#163

Post by sametmax »

jfoutz wrote: post #62
sametmax wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the exact opposite actually. Nit saying it's a bad thing though. But it's important to understand that screens are taking your attention away. You are not in the moment at all.

Would you be willing to elaborate on that a bit? Once upon a time, i played a few competitive games. I'd have to be very aware of my emotional state. Being aware of a sort of sick feeling when i'm falling behind, recognizing that that exists and not letting it affect my play seems like what people mean when they speak of mindfulness. And the converse, not getting cocky when pulling ahead. I also dealt with the random…

I'm just a beginner since I've been meditating for only 8 years but from my experience, most video games involve at least one of the following:

- ego

- loosing track of time

- loosing track of physical reality, such as bodily sensations

- reacting

- desiring an outcome

- judging

Not all of them, and not for all video games. But any of those characteristic seems to be something quite antagonist with mindfulness.

Now somebody that is very focused, very selfless and equanimous in a competitive game will have something close to meditation. But first they are rare, and secondly the very existence of the game, being virtual and... a game, seems to be orthogonal the mindful state state.

I'm not a competitive player though, and:

- when I play dota I react A LOT.

- when I'm coding or watching a movie, I completely forget reality.

It contrast a lot with my meditation practice. Maybe some people are better at dealing with screens that I am.

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#164

Post by Can_Not »

btdiehr wrote: post #96
noonespecial wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video games also provide a quality sorely lacking in real life. They try very hard to prevent cheating, because if there's too much cheating, or too much inequality between players, no one will play. Hmmm...

Exactly, that's why runescape and world of warcraft have adopted the marxist game mechanic of automatically redistributing all resources and exp between all players at the end of every day.

That's funny that to you "turning off cheating" somehow becomes fully automated communism.

If I were a kid and there was some game where my one of my peers always won because their parents let them spend literally hundreds of dollars on advanced gear that would cost me months of gameplay hours, I wouldn't want to play it. The game's updates and design would probably drift towards rpping off that kid's parents instead of maximzing fun. For some people, this is already real life for them.

In WoW, if my peer has a rare sword, it's not because his mom bought it.

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#165

Post by trentmb »

Can_Not wrote: post #164
btdiehr wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, that's why runescape and world of warcraft have adopted the marxist game mechanic of automatically redistributing all resources and exp between all players at the end of every day.

That's funny that to you "turning off cheating" somehow becomes fully automated communism. If I were a kid and there was some game where my one of my peers always won because their parents let them spend literally hundreds of dollars on advanced gear that would cost me months of gameplay hours, I wouldn't want to play it. The game's updates and design would probably drift towards rpping off that kid's parents instead…

People don't pay real money for in game items?

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#166

Post by notyourwork »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #155
slg wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do a Google image search for old video game ads to prove my point. Here are new NES games retailing at $55-$70 - http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/4240/90scommercials1324wwwk... Here are new SNES games retailing at $60-$70 - https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b9/57/24/b957... Here are new Genesis games retailing at $45-$65 - http://farm1.static.flickr.com/215/523645427_a566d2d110_b.jp... Here are n…

Playstation started with a SRP of $49 when it launched in the US in 1995. Sony dropped the SRP of first party titles to $39 in 1997, several years before PS2 launched. PS2 launched with games back up at $49, and then Sony followed Microsoft's lead and upped it to $59 for the PS3. So if you look at a narrow window of time, you see games going $39 -> $49 -> $59, but that doesn't give the full picture. Throw in inflatio…

This is what I remember, thanks for clarifying.

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#167

Post by emodendroket »

nindalf wrote: post #146
ddebernardy wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they really? I've never spent more than a few days on a book, but I've certainly spent well over 300 hours on some video games. I love reading, but to me books seem quite expensive as an entertainment medium in comparison with computer games.

I just finished a couple of books that take approximately 17 hours on average. They cost me $5 each on the Kindle store. Hard to beat $0.3/hr. I also spent a few hours at a LAN cafe yesterday, at $1/hr, which is a reasonable rate here in South Asia. Of course I could have gone to the library, but I read a lot more if the book is a tap away on my tablet.

I mean if a book is less than 15 bucks it might as well be free, practically speaking, for most people who post here.

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#168

Post by pseudalopex »

codingdave wrote: post #90
jorgemf wrote: post #4

Of course, because the lower salaries, the high prices of the houses and the global crisis during these years has nothing to do with the unemployment in the young population.

Right, but the question I'd be interested in hearing more about is why gaming as a response to that unemployment? I'm recently unemployed (by my own choice), and am playing less games. I'm spending my extra time hiking, swimming, kayaking, etc. I actually deleted the games I used to play from my computer. I certainly have the time now to play more... but I'm in my mid-40s, and I did grow up on games, yet it seems far…

Now imagine you're in your 20s and were laid off 6 months ago. You have no savings, no partner, and no in-demand skills. You bought a console and some games last year when you still had a job. $10 will pay for a month of online play, bus fare and a day pass at the pool, or enough gas for two trips to the nearest trailhead. You don't really enjoy playing video games all day, but it keeps your mind off your troubles, which is more than you can say for hiking.

I don't think your situation is typical even for people your own age. I suspect the biggest generational difference is TV vs. video games.

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#169

Post by Can_Not »

trentmb wrote: post #165
Can_Not wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny that to you "turning off cheating" somehow becomes fully automated communism. If I were a kid and there was some game where my one of my peers always won because their parents let them spend literally hundreds of dollars on advanced gear that would cost me months of gameplay hours, I wouldn't want to play it. The game's updates and design would probably drift towards rpping off that kid's parents instead…

People don't pay real money for in game items?

Lots of people don't pay extra for in game items.

Re: A link between video games and unemployment

#170

Post by jboggan »

jacquesm wrote: post #116
orthoganol wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too am sitting here waiting for a TensorFlow language model to finish training :)

I wonder how many people here are currently browsing HN waiting for their models to train. 526/1816 [=======>......................] - ETA: 1123s - loss: 0.2013 - acc: 0.9386 - val_loss: 0.3690 - val_acc: 0.9122

It's the new compiling.
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